The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is gearing up to pay huge year-end bonuses to its 31,000 employees after raking in quarterly profits of $3.19bn (£1.96bn), boosted by astute trading, resurgent stocks and a return to relative normality on the financial markets.

Goldman's profits of $35m a day for the three months to September were more than three times as much as the bank made during the same period in 2008. Under its policy of setting aside almost half of its revenue to pay its staff, the firm has built up a compensation fund of $16.7bn for the year to date – including $5.35bn set aside in the last quarter.

Barring a sudden slump in business in the last few months of the year, Goldman looks set to generate a remuneration pool amounting to an average of more than $700,000 per staff member – a payout that would risk a backlash in political and public circles. Goldman's payroll includes 5,500 people in Britain, most of whom are based at its UK headquarters on Fleet Street.

In a nod to concern over corporate responsibility, Goldman announced that it was putting $200m into a charitable foundation aimed at supporting educational initiatives around the world. The bank's chief financial officer, David Viniar, accepted that Goldman was treading a delicate line as controversy rages over pay in the financial industry.

"We're very aware of what's going on in the world but we have to trade that off with being fair to our people who, we believe, have performed admirably throughout this crisis," said Viniar.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/15/goldman-sachs-announces-profits-boom